sign in sign up
<<
Home , Academic publishing, Article (publishing), Manuscript (publishing), Scientific writing

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS How to publish in scholarly journals

.com/authors Save time organizing and papers Download Mendeley for free mendeley.com

AW_A4_POSTER--v2.indd 3 07/04/2017 15:29 UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS How to publish in scholarly journals

CONTENTS 1 Introduction ...... 4 2 Find the right journal ...... 5 2.1 Introduction ...... 5 2.2 Journal Finder ...... 5 2.3 Journal metrics ...... 5 2.4 options ...... 6 3 Prepare your paper ...... 7 3.1 Your ...... 7 3.2 quality ...... 9 3.3 Illustrations ...... 10 3.4 Enrich your ...... 10 3.4.1 AudioSlides ...... 10 3.4.2 Graphical Abstracts ...... 10 3.5 Adding data ...... 11 3.6 ...... 11 3.7 SEO your article ...... 11 4 Submit and revise your paper...... 12 4.1 How to submit a paper? ...... 12 4.2 ...... 12 4.3 Article Transfer Service ...... 12 4.4 Check the status of your paper ...... 12 5 After acceptance ...... 13 5.1 Article in press ...... 13 5.2 Proofing ...... 13 5.3 Share Link & offprints ...... 13 6 Copyright ...... 14 7 Promote your work ...... 15 7.1 Share your paper ...... 15 7.2 Be discovered online ...... 15 7.3 Conferences ...... 15 7.4 ...... 16 7.5 Scholarly collaboration networks ...... 16 7.6 Media relations ...... 16 8 Montor your impact ...... 17 8.1 Introduction ...... 17 8.2 Mendeley Stats ...... 17 8.3 Article metrics ...... 18 9 Why publish with Elsevier ...... 19 9.1 Introduction ...... 19 9.2 Innovation ...... 19 9.3 ScienceDirect ...... 19 9.4 ...... 19 9.5 Mendeley ...... 20 10 Further information and training ...... 21 10.1 Publishing Campus...... 21 10.2 ’ Update ...... 21 10.3 Postdoc Free Access Program ...... 21

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 3 UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS How to publish in scholarly journals

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS How to publish in scholarly journals

Introduction | 1

As researchers, you make huge strides in advancing essential knowledge. Your achievements can save lives and improve the way we live. If you’re ready to share your knowledge with the world, this booklet outlines the best opportunities for publishing your – and for seeing it shared globally.

The first question to ask yourself is, ‘do I have a story to tell?’. Editors and reviewers look for original and innovative research that adds to their field of study, or immediately impacts patient care. This means that your conclusions must be sound and based on sufficiently robust data.

Secondly, ask yourself, ‘is there an audience for my research findings?’. The more original and innovative your research, the more people will be interested. Consider whether your research is of interest to a local, regional or international audience. Identifying your audience is a major factor in selecting the right journal to submit your manuscript to. You can read more about selecting a journal in section 2.2. There are severalelsevier types of research.com/authors articles: 1. Letters and rapid or short are intended for the quick and early of significant or original advances, without including too much data or detail. 2. Review papers summarize recent developments on a specific topic, without introducing new data. 3. Full articles contain significant data, detail, developments and outcomes. 4. Research enable you to publish research output, such as data, software, , videos and much more, in brief, citable articles.

If you’re unsure which type of article to write, discuss your options with your supervisor or colleagues. For the purposes of this booklet, we offer guidance for writing and publishing a full article. Once you’ve decided to write a full article, follow the guidelines of your chosen journal, and the general guidelines for outlined in the following sections.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 4 Find the right journal | 2

2.1 INTRODUCTION Finding the right journal for your article can be key to reaching your audience.

• Take into consideration the type of article you’d like to publish (full length, letter, review, research output). • Check the references in your article, to give an indication of possible journals of interest. • Read the journal’s aims and scope on the journal homepage on elsevier.com. • Read or download the journal’s Guide for Authors. • Check if the journal is invitation-only; some journals only accept articles after inviting the to submit. • Check the journal’s performance for review and publication timelines (see 2.3). • If you need to publish open access, remember that most Elsevier journals explain their open access options on the journal homepage (see 2.4). • Submit your paper to only one journal at a time (see 3.6, on ethics).

2.2 JOURNAL FINDER The Journal Finder tool locates Elsevier journals that most closely match your abstracts. An Elsevier journal will be recommended if it has published articles that are highly similar to your article. A list of relevant articles is generated, and the tool can filter on your preferred criteria, such as open access options, journal metrics, review time, acceptance rate and production time. See journalfinder.elsevier.com.

2.3 JOURNAL METRICS Journal metrics are at your disposal to help you select the most appropriate journal for your article. When used alongside information about the journal’s scope, editorial board, international outlook and audience, they can help you to find the best destination for your research.

Different types of journal metrics It’s good practice to look at more than one metric to help you make your decision. You’ll find a dedicated Journal Insights section on many of the journal homepages on elsevier.com, giving information about the journal’s:

• Speed – review speed and online publication time • Reach – geographic location of corresponding authors and journal usage • Impact – impact metrics based on received by articles

Citation-based impact metrics The average impact of all the articles in a journal is often used as a proxy for the impact of a specific article – especially when the article hasn’t yet had time to accumulate its own citations. It’s important to take this kind of proxy metric into consideration.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 5 The Journal Insights section on the Elsevier.com journal homepage has several impact metrics to be aware of:

CiteScore* SNIP SJR Full name CiteScore -Normalized Impact SCImago Journal Rank – per Paper

Measures Average number of citations Citations relative to average Average prestige per Average citations received in a calendar year by all for discipline; SNIP > 1 publication, depending per publication items published in that journal means journal is cited on the SJR of the citing in the preceding three years. more than average for field journal

Accounts for varying Y Y Y Y journal size? Accounts for varying N Y Y N behaviour between disciplines? Availability CiteScore, SNIP and SJR are available on Scopus and can be accessed freely Thomson Reuters

Free of charge at journalmetrics.scopus.com Free of charge via individual journal Free of charge via individual journal homepages: Journal Insights homepages: Journal Insights.

*NEW: CiteScore is a simple way of measuring the impact of serial titles such as journals. Serial titles are defined as titles which publish on a regular 2.4 OPEN ACCESS OPTIONS basis (i.e. one or more volumes per year). In general, open access indicates free and permanent access to published CiteScore calculates the average number of citations research, combined with clear guidelines for readers to share and use the received in a calendar year by all items published in that journal in the preceding three years. content. There are two main types of open access: gold and green.

What is the difference between gold and green?

GOLD OPEN ACCESS GREEN OPEN ACCESS Access • Free public access to the final • Free public access to a version of your published article article • Access is immediate and permanent • Time delay may apply (embargo period)

Fee • Open access fee is paid by the • No fee is payable by the author, author, or on their behalf (for as costs are covered by library example by a funding body) subscriptions

Use • Determined by your user license • Authors retain the right to use their articles for a wide range of purposes. All open versions of your article should have a user license attached Options 1. Publish in an open access journal 1. Link to your article 2. Publish in a journal that supports 2. For selected journals Elsevier makes open access (also known as a hybrid the articles freely available after an journal) embargo period in the open archives 3. Self-archive your manuscript

Some funding bodies or institutions have a policy on public access to research. It’s important to know the open access policy of your institution or funding body before you decide whether or not to publish open access. Elsevier offers a wide range of publication options for your research to comply with funding policy or institutional mandates. Elsevier publishes more than 400+ gold open access journals and

EBiomedicine is a new open access journal that bridges offers options to publish open access in more than 1,600 subscription basic & patient care in collaboration with journals. For more information on your open access options, see and . It’s one of the many open access journals Elsevier publishes. elsevier.com/openaccessoptions.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 6 Prepare your paper | 3

3.1 YOUR MANUSCRIPT

Title The title is the main advertisement for your article. A great title entices the audience to read on; a poorly-titled article may never reach its target readers.

Your article’s title should reflect its content clearly, enabling readers to decide whether it’s relevant for them. Make the title catchy and keep it specific. Leave out phrases such as ‘a study of’, ‘investigations into’, ‘observations on’; and avoid using abbreviations and jargon.

Remember, too, that abstracting and indexing services depend on accurate titles; they extract keywords from them for cross-referencing.

Why ‘The effect of heating the albumen and vitellus of the Gallus gallus domesticus contained in calcium carbonate in H2O to 373.15 K’ when ‘Boiling a chicken egg in water’ says it?

Essentially, effective titles:

• Identify the article’s main issue. • Begin with the article’s subject matter. • Are accurate, unambiguous, specific and (when possible) complete. • Are as short as possible. • Are enticing and interesting; they make people want to read further.

Authors Only authors who’ve made an intellectual contribution to the research should be credited; those who’ll take responsibility for the data and conclusions, and who’ve approved the final manuscript. The of credited names can vary between disciplines; the corresponding author may not always be the first author.

Keyword list Most journals request a list of keywords; important words that, along with those in the title, capture the research effectively. Keywords are used by abstracting and indexing services; choosing the right ones can increase the chances of your article being found by other researchers. Many Elsevier journals also ask for a subject classification during the online submission process; this helps editors to select reviewers.

Abstract The is your chance to describe your research in 200 words – so use it wisely. Together, the title and abstract should be able to fully represent your article, including for use by indexing services. Many authors write the abstract last, so it reflects the content accurately.

The abstract should summarize the problem or objective of your research, and its method, results, and conclusions. Usually an abstract doesn’t include references, figures or tables. It should mention each significant

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 7 section of the article, with enough detail for readers to decide whether or not to read the whole paper. While it’s great to make the abstract interesting, above all it should be accurate. Don’t promise more than your article delivers.

The body of the text Make the introduction brief. It should provide context and background, but not be a history lesson. It should state the problem being investigated, its contextual background, and the reasons for conducting the research. State the questions you’re answering and explain any findings of others that you’re challenging or furthering. Briefly and logically lead the reader to your hypotheses, research questions, and experimental design or method.

Method (also called and Methods or Experimental Methods)

This section should be detailed enough that readers can replicate your research, and assess whether the methods justify the conclusions. It’s advisable to use the past tense – it’s about what you did – and avoid using the first person, although this will vary from journal to journal. Ultimately, you should explain how you studied the problem, identify the procedures you followed, and structure this information as logically as possible.

If your methods are new, you’ll need to explain them in detail. If they’ve been published before, cite the original work, including your amendments if you’ve made modifications. Identify the equipment and the materials you used, specifying their source. State the frequency of observations and what types of data were recorded. Give precise measurements, stating their strengths and weaknesses when necessary. Name any statistical tests, so your quantitative results can be judged.

If your research involved human participants, animals, or other biohazard materials, you’ll need to include certain information in the ethics statement, such as committee approvals and permission to publish. You should also explain your criteria for selecting participants.

Results This section should present your findings objectively, explaining them largely in text. It’s where you show how your results contribute to the body of scientific knowledge, so be clear and logical. And it’s important not to interpret your results – that comes in the Discussion & Conclusions section.

You can the sequence of this text on the tables, figures and graphs that best present your findings. Emphasize any significant findings clearly. Tables and figures must be numbered separately; figures should have a brief but complete description – a legend – that reveals how the data was produced.

Discussion & Conclusions This is where you describe the meaning of your results, especially in the context of what was already known about the subject. You can present

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 8 general and specific conclusions, but take care not to summarize your article – that’s what the abstract is for.

You should link this section back to the introduction, referring to your questions or hypotheses, and cover how the results relate to your expectations and cited sources. Do the results support or contradict existing theories? Are there any limitations? You can also suggest further , uses and extensions.

Above all, the discussion should explain how your research has moved the body of scientific knowledge forward. Your conclusions must be supportable and not extend beyond your results, so avoid undue speculation and bold judgments about impact. This is also a good place to suggest practical applications for your results, and to outline what the next steps in your research will be.

To summarize, make sure that:

• Your results directly support your conclusions. • You use specific expressions and quantitative descriptions – ‘12 degrees higher’ instead of ‘a higher temperature’. • You only discuss what you defined early in the paper – don’t introduce the reader to a whole new vocabulary. If you missed an important term, go back to the introduction and insert it. • All interpretations and speculations are based on fact, not imagination.

Acknowledgments Keep acknowledgements brief, naming those who helped with your research; contributors, or suppliers who provided free materials. You should also disclose any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that could be seen to influence your results or interpretations.

References New research builds on previously published work, which should always be acknowledged. Any information that isn’t ‘common knowledge’, or generated by your experiments, must be recognized with a citation; and quoted text should be within quotation marks, and include a reference. The format of citations and references varies, so you should refer to the Guide for Authors for the journal you’re submitting to.

3.2 LANGUAGE QUALITY A scientific article should report your findings and conclusions as clearly and concisely as possible. To achieve this:

• Try to avoid unnecessary words or phrases – keep it simple. • Use active writing when possible. For example, ‘Carbon dioxide was consumed by the plant’ is passive. Active writing shortens this phrase to, ‘The plant consumed carbon dioxide’ – which is much snappier. • Tense is important. For known facts and hypotheses, use the present tense: ‘The average expectancy of a honey bee is six weeks.’ But use the past tense when referring to experiments you’ve conducted: ‘All the honey bees were maintained in an environment with a consistent temperature of 23°C.’ And also use the past tense to describe results: ‘The average life span of bees in our contained environment was eight weeks.’

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 9 “We have submitted around 600 Elsevier has services to help ensure that your work is written in papers for language editing. More correct scientific English before submission, and that your paper is free of than 99% of our researchers are grammatical, spelling, and other common errors. Translation services are satisfied with the work of Elsevier. Based on previous successful also available from or into Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, experiences with Elsevier, we Russian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and many more languages. encourage our researchers to use For more information see webshop.elsevier.com/languageservices. the language editing service before they submit their papers to 3.3 ILLUSTRATIONS a journal.” Submitting any illustrations, figures or other artwork – like multimedia

PROF. CHEN JING, and supplementary files – in an electronic format means that we can Beijing Normal University, China produce your work to the best possible standard, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail. For specific details on how to format and submit artwork, check elsevier.com/artwork.

Our professional illustration services can create or polish images to match your exact needs. We support detailed full-color and photorealistic images from sketches, or convert existing images into more simplified line drawings. The delivery of detailed graphs and tables takes only 48 hours. For more information see webshop.elsevier.com/illustrationservices.

3.4 ENRICH YOUR ARTICLE You can enrich your article with interactive visualizations and provide context by adding references to (external) information sources, such as Virtual Microscope, Interactive Map Viewer and 3D Molecular Models. After publication, you can additionally prepare article enrichments which promote your research in alternative formats, such as a slide presentation, knowledge quiz or promotional video like AudioSlides.

Find out which options are available for journals in your research field, “The reader also gets visit: elsevier.com/authors/author-services/enrichments. a quick grasp about the paper that cannot 3.4.1 AUDIOSLIDES be explained in a short AudioSlides are short, webcast-style presentations, which allow you written abstract” to present your research in your own words. Elsevier offers you the TILBE GÖKSUN, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Koç option of creating your own unique AudioSlides presentation which University, Istanbul on creating her AudioSlides complements your research and provides readers with a short, succinct overview of the article content. This appears alongside your article once it is published on Elsevier’s ScienceDirect platform, home to one-quarter of the world’s STM journal and content. AudioSlides are free to access and easy to share, independently from the article, with colleagues, (influential) bloggers and on social media including YouTube. Make the most of your AudioSlides with our useful Tips and Tricks: elsevier.com/audioslides.

3.4.2 GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTS A Graphical Abstract is a visual summary of the main findings of the article that is placed as part of your article an ScienceDirect and will turn up in online search result lists. It will help people to understand the key point of your article at a glance. You can make use of our professional illustration services at the Elsevier webshop: webshop.elsevier.com.

You can use your Graphical Abstract as a promotional tool by for example Tweeted graphical abstracts tweeting it, sharing it on social media or sending it to an (influential) blogger. Always add a link to your article.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 10 “With Data in Brief, 3.5 ADDING DATA many developments in Research data forms the backbone of your research article and provides the research can become foundation on which scientific, technical and medical knowledge is built. more useful when data sources are shared. We are excited and grateful for the As a researcher, you are increasingly encouraged, or even mandated, to opportunity to have our data make your research data available, accessible, discoverable and usable. accessible at no cost to the These ensure you receive credit for your work, while giving your readers community.” deeper insights and supporting their work. PROF. BARRAZA-LOPEZ, Department of Physics, University of Arkansas As an author, you can choose to store your data in a repository, like Mendeley Data: data.mendeley.com, to make your dataset independently citable and link it with your article: elsevier.com/authors/author-services/ research-data/data-base-linking.

These ensure you receive credit for your work, while making your research data accessible, giving your readers deeper insights and supporting their work.

3.6 ETHICS Understanding the boundaries in scientific research and publishing is a key step in making sure your work gets off to the best start. Scientific misconduct and breach of publishing ethics can take different forms, and be committed knowingly or unknowingly. Examples of misconduct and breaches include:

• Authorship disputes – deliberately misrepresenting a scientist’s relationship with published work. • Competing interests – not disclosing to a journal that you have a direct or indirect conflict which prevents you from being unbiased. • – passing off another’s work or idea as your own. • Simultaneous submission – submitting a paper to more than one publication at the same time. • Research fraud – including fabrication (making up research data) and falsification (manipulating research data, tables or images). • Salami slicing – the ‘slicing-up’ of research that would form one meaningful paper into several different papers.

The Ethics in Research & Publication Program is a collaboration between Elsevier and an independent panel of experts in research and publishing ethics. The program’s online resources and tools have been developed to help you feel confident that you’re doing the right things. See publishingcampus.com/ethics.

3.7 SEO YOUR ARTICLE Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps to ensure that your article appears higher in the results returned by search engines such as Google. This can mean you attract more readers, gain higher visibility in the academic community, and potentially increase citations.

Tips for SEO include:

• Use keywords, especially in the title and abstract. • Add captions with keywords to all photographs, images, graphs and tables. • Add titles or subheadings (with keywords) to the different sections of your article. • Make sure you place links to your article from relevant websites e.g. your institute’s website, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and social media.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 11 Submit and revise your paper | 4 Once you’ve checked (and re-checked!) your manuscript, you’re ready to submit it to the journal editor via the submission and peer review system.

4.1 HOW TO SUBMIT A PAPER? Elsevier’s Editorial System (EES) has transitioned to Evise®, a fully online workflow for article publication. Submission is simple: direct links for registration and log-in can be found in our journals’ Guide for Authors.

4.2 PEER REVIEW After submission, each manuscript is checked for plagiarism, and assessed carefully to determine if it fits the aims and scope of the journal. If journal representatives are enthusiastic about the work, the journal editor will appoint reviewers.

What does the peer reviewer do? Reviewers help determine the validity, significance and originality of the work, and can suggest improvements to the manuscript and the research. On their recommendation, editors will accept, accept with revisions, or reject a manuscript.

To make good judgments, peer reviewers use their own checklists to evaluate the content for scientific value and originality, to see that articles adhere to general scientific practice as well as the journal’s specific guidelines, and to check that you’ve referenced correctly. The peer reviewer will look closely at your and the validity of your data, and consider your ethical approach. They will then recommend changes before your manuscript is published. See elsevier.com/reviewers/home for more details.

Different types of peer review Type of review Description Single blind (most common) Reviewer identity hidden from author; reviewer knows identity of authors

Double blind Both reviewer and author remain anonymous to each other Open Reviewer and author are known to each other

4.3 ARTICLE TRANSFER SERVICE Several Elsevier journals operate a complimentary Article Transfer Service. The editor will offer this service if they feel your article fits better with another Elsevier journal; with your approval, your submission will be transferred there.

4.4 CHECK THE STATUS OF YOUR PAPER After submission you can follow the status of your article in the Elsevier Editorial System (EES or Evise), using a reference number that you’ll receive by email.

If your paper is accepted for publication, you can follow the publication status through to completion using the ‘track your article’ feature. You’ll receive a reference number and link via email, after final decision.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 12 After acceptance: article in press, | 5 proofing, share link and offprints

Congratulations! Your article has been accepted!

There are a few more things to consider that can optimize the publication of your work. Elsevier will do everything it can to have your article published as quickly and accurately as possible.

5.1 ARTICLES IN PRESS Accepted articles are published online on ScienceDirect as an ‘article in press’, and assigned an issue at a later date. You can track your article and citations throughout this process.

5.2 PROOFING Accurate and clear marking of corrections are essential for the production of a quality article. As soon as your article has been typeset, you’ll receive an email with either a PDF attachment of your article or a link to it on our online proofing system.

5.3 SHARE LINK AND OFFPRINTS Most of our journals give authors a personalized link that provides 50 days’ free access to the final published version of their article on ScienceDirect. This link can also be used for sharing via email and social networks. For more information see elsevier.com/author-share-link.

Some journals provide offprints; an exact copy of the article published either on paper or as a PDF.

You can order paper offprints before publication, using the provided Offprint Order Form. If your journal doesn’t issue paper offprints as standard, you’ll pay a small fee. Once you’ve submitted the order form, you should allow 30-60 days for delivery of the offprints.

After publication, you can order paper offprints from the Elsevier Author WebShop: webshop.elsevier.com. You can order from 50 to 250 offprints, in increments of 50, published on high-quality glossy paper and with optional covers.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 13 Copyright | 6 When you publish with Elsevier, you enter into a legal agreement. This means that both we at Elsevier and you as an author agree to certain rights and responsibilities, and promise to act in a legally-sound manner.

Protecting author rights Copyright aims to protect the specific way the article has been written to describe the research and its results. Elsevier is committed to the protection and defense of its authors’ work and reputations. We take allegations of infringement, plagiarism, ethical disputes and fraud very seriously.

Publishing agreement In order for Elsevier to be able to publish and disseminate your article, we need certain publishing permissions. These permissions are defined by a publishing agreement between the author and the publisher. You’ll be asked to complete a journal publishing agreement or license during the time between your article’s acceptance and its final version. For more information, see elsevier.com/copyright.

End user license If you’ve chosen to publish your article gold open access, you also select an end user license to determine how readers can share and use your article without having to request permission. Elsevier offers a choice of commercial or non-commercial user licenses, so you can select the license which suits your type of research. (For Health & Medical Science journals there are different regulations; see elsevier.com/ openaccesslicenses.)

AUTHOR What is the license process? Retains copyright USER LICENSE Step 1: Authors sign a publishing agreement where they will retain copyright but grant publishing rights to the publisher. Step 2: Readers can use and share the article as de ned by Publishes article the user license. under the user Step 3: The author grants the license PUBLISHER READER/USER publisher the right to publish Grants publishing Granted rights to the article under the applicable rights reuse the article license. Step 4: The publisher makes the article available online with the author’s user license.

Before choosing an end user license, we recommend that you:

• Understand what each user license permits, and the rights it grants to readers for using your article. • Check if your funding body or institution has a policy requiring the use of a specific license. • Read your journal’s Guide for Authors to ensure it offers the license you want to use. • Visit the Creativecommons.org site for more information on what to consider before selecting a user license. (It’s important to note that you can’t revoke your chosen license.)

For more information, see elsevier.com/openaccesslicenses.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 14 Promote your work | 7 More than one million scientific articles are published each year, and that number is rising. So it’s increasingly important for you to find ways to make your article stand out.

Promoting your research does not begin after your manuscript is finished and has been published online. It should be on your mind even whilst you are doing it and writing up your paper. Promoting your research also continues after it has been published and tracking the performance of your promotion activities will help drive results.

For more detailed guidelines see elsevier.com/promote-your-work. “Once authors have published in an 7.1 SHARE YOUR PAPER Elsevier journal, they come back because Sharing your research and findings can help you make a greater impact of the other things in your community, leading to better collaboration, new ideas and Elsevier does for them: potential innovations. Millions of researchers have access to your formal Mendeley Stats, the publication hosted on ScienceDirect, enabling users to find, access, and support for how to get the word out, cite your research in its best available version. how do you deal with media, how do you look at the impact of what you’ve Elsevier will send you a ‘Share Link’: a personal, customized short link done.” that you’ll receive after the final publication of your article. We encourage DR. BARBARA YAWN, Director, Department of Research, Olmsted you to share this link on social media; anyone clicking on it gets 50 days’ Medical Center; Adjunct Professor, University of free access to your newly published article on ScienceDirect. Minnesota; Chief Editor, Respiratory Case Reports The more links there are to your article from a range of websites, the more readers you’ll attract and the higher it will appear on search engine results.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing and we want to make it easy for you to share your research.

For the latest information on sharing your article see elsevier.com/sharing-articles.

7.2 BE DISCOVERED ONLINE It’s important people can find you and links to your publications online. There are a few easy tools to help you increase your online visibility.

If you have a personal page at your institute, include links to the final versions of your articles on that page. You should also ensure that your CV is available online, with links to your publications. You can do this on the popular networking site LinkedIn, or on a personal website or .

Finally, keep your SCOPUS and ORCID author profiles up-to-date so others can find your journal. You can now update both at . scopusfeedback.com. Just follow the easy online steps.

7.3 CONFERENCES Presenting and networking personalizes your work, giving it a face and voice, and can create new opportunities for collaboration. Make sure you connect with other delegates on Facebook and LinkedIn, and direct them to your website or blog. If you create a poster for a conference, post it on

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 15 your website and provide links on your blog, social media profiles, online CV, or institutional page.

7.4 SOCIAL MEDIA Every day, scholarly articles receive thousands of new mentions across social media, news and blogs; it’s a powerful medium for reaching your potential readers! However, you don’t have to be active on all social media – it’s often best to find one or two channels which suit you and your purposes. Some of the most widely-used media are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Build up a group of followers and share links to your publications. You can enhance your posts with visuals and videos that attract more attention. And don’t forget to share your AudioSlides and Graphical Abstracts.

7.5 SHARING ON A SCHOLARLY COLLABORATION NETWORK (SCN), SUCH AS MENDELEY OR SCHOLAR UNIVERSE Services such as SCNs enable authors to showcase their work, providing fast and effective ways to collaborate and disseminate research. A number of SCNs are working together with publishers to help to showcase your work by sharing links to published journal articles on author profiles.

We encourage authors to share their research responsibly on SCNs. You can share your , article abstract or a link to your article.

Additional sharing options may be available, see elsevier.com/sharingpolicy.

7.6 MEDIA RELATIONS Elsevier promotes selected research papers to the global scientific media. If you think your article is interesting for a wider audience, or you’d like more information about any of the promotional channels mentioned above, contact us at [email protected] to explore the possibilities.

Remember to also get in touch with the press office at your institute to see what they can do to help you promote your paper.

Article by Vivian Kouri et al. published in open access journal EBiomedicine featured on CBS News

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 16 Monitor your impact | 8

8.1 INTRODUCTION It’s worth bearing in mind that your peers and tutors monitor your impact. Being aware of this helps you to submit your article to the most appropriate place (section 2.3), and also to position yourself by proactively supplying information about your own performance.

Just like when you’re considering where to publish, the best approach to monitoring your impact is to have multiple ways of assessing your performance.

If you’re at an early stage in your career, you can use metrics that don’t require longer timeframes:

• Collaboration – how big is your network? What’s the status of colleagues in your network? Where in the world are they located? • Scholarly output – how productive are you? • Usage – how often have your publications been viewed? • Article metrics – who’s talking about papers online and what’s being said? • Journal status – what’s the status of the journals that have published your work? The average of all the articles in a journal is a useful proxy for the impact your articles will achieve when they’ve had time to accumulate citations.

When you’re at a later stage in your research career, with a sizeable output and an impressive number of citations, further metrics can then become useful:

• Citation count – how many citations have your articles received? • Outstanding articles – which of your articles are in the top percentile of comparable articles? • h-index – this rates your entire publication career based on both output and citation impact. (An h-index of 11 indicates that 11 of a researcher’s articles have each received at least 11 citations.)

8.2 MENDELEY STATS Any author who has published at least one article with Elsevier within the last 10 years will be invited to register for a personalized dashboard, offering:

• Early feedback on how your publications are being downloaded, shared and cited, based on ScienceDirect, Mendeley and Scopus. • Data about the geographic locations and research disciplines of your readers. • Detailed information about search terms used in ScienceDirect to find your publications. • A comparison of the performance of your article with other articles.

Have you not been invited to register for your personal dashboard yet? Don’t worry, as it will certainly happen soon. You can also easily register via mendeley.com/stats.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 17 ublications itations ies eaders

9 66 90

ies itations count over time ies itations

Mar pr May un ul ug Sep Oct ov Dec an 6 eb 6

ast months istorical vie

Mendeley Stats: A personal and real time feedback service to authors. Combining metrics dating back 10 years. Including Elsevier and non-Elsevier publications.

8.3 ARTICLE METRICS Who’s talking about papers online and what’s being said? Article metrics allow you to track and analyze online activity around your article.

Online article mentions are monitored from social media sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Google+), science blogs, many mainstream media outlets (including the NY Times, The Guardian, non-English language publications like Die Zeit and Le Monde, and special interest publications like , and New Scientist) and reference managers for mentions of academic papers.

Via our journal homepages we will show Top-10 lists of popular articles. Any article covered on Scopus will both show article metrics and percentile comparisons to articles of the same type and age. Metrics will only be displayed if data is available.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 18 Why publish with Elsevier? | 9

“Elsevier has a continuing pipeline 9.1 INTRODUCTION of innovating products and ideas.” Of course, you’ll consider other publishers and journals for your article. DR. GREGORY POLAND, Why Elsevier? Well, chances are that the leading journal in your field Editor-in-Chief Vaccine of expertise – The Lancet if you’re a medical scientist – is published by Elsevier. We publish thousands of journals and , including many of the world’s most renowned titles such as Cell and Tetrahedon Letters. We also continue to launch leading open access journals, such as EBiomedicine and Heliyon.

“The idea that you 9.2 INNOVATION can find and publish As a global information analytics , we also pride ourselves on our ‘hidden gems’ from innovative approach, offering online services, article-based publishing your lab book really resonated with us. and new types of open access publishing; including research elements, It allowed us to publish a useful find- which allow you to publish research output such as data, software, ing that may otherwise have stayed methods, videos, and more. We’re constantly looking for ways to make in the lab book or been buried in your articles easier to find, and to facilitate collaboration between another manuscript.” researchers and authors. Article Enrichment provides you with new tools DR. KEIRA. MELICAN, author and a member of the MethodsX advisory to present your article: Share Link allows you to share your work with a board from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, wide audience; and Mendeley Stats lets you monitor your impact in a new Sweden on the new microarticle journal MethodsX and detailed way.

9.3 SCIENCEDIRECT Elsevier publishes your article on ScienceDirect, a leading information solution providing authoritative, full-text scientific, technical and medical content from Elsevier. By optimizing the platform and indexing all content, Elsevier works to ensure that your article is more visible and can be found more easily by search engines, library discovery services, A&I databases, and other search and discovery tools.

Your article will be accessible immediately after acceptance, and has a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier) which will always link to the latest available version. Elsevier also participates in the multi-publisher initiative Crossref, which creates direct links between your article and those that cite you. The CrossMark logo in online PDF or HTML helps readers to verify that they’re using the most recent and reliable version of your work.

9.4 SCOPUS Scopus is the largest abstract and citation of peer-reviewed – scientific journals, books and conferences – and features tools to track, analyze and visualize scholarly research. Its vast database contains abstracts and references from more than 21,000 titles, obtained from over 5,000 publishers worldwide, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social and the arts and .

For authors, Scopus can simplify the search for relevant full-text content and potential research partners with advanced search functions and email alerts on specific topics, people and institutions.

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 19 Scopus lets you:

• Search for relevant topics or articles during the phase. • Decide where, and with whom, to publish – analyze the top journals and authors in your discipline. • Discover who is citing you, see their h-index and output information. • Explore how many citations an article or author has received, and identify potential collaborators. • Find information to support your grant or other applications.

Additionally, Scopus helps you manage your research output and monitor your reputation. Just sign up to receive citation alerts to track when your work is cited in other articles; and use the Scopus Author Profile page to view and analyze your output, including your h-index.

“Mendeley makes it 9.5 MENDELEY much easier to share Mendeley is a powerful reference manager and a Scholarly Collaboration information with our Network with more than 6 million users. Create a free account to discover overseas colleagues - relevant research, connect and collaborate with the global community. we can discuss research papers over time zones Get started. Start a free account at mendeley.com and explore. and if internet connections are unreliable.” POLLY COMPSTON, Mendeley Research Advisor, The Brooke, London, UK

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 20 “Thank you for this | 10 excellent service. I have Further information and training recommended it to

my researchers. I am 10.1 PUBLISHING CAMPUS looking forward to the The Elsevier Publishing Campus provides researchers all over the world next events” with free access to valuable training and advice on applying for grants, PROF. DR. ANNE MARIE OUDESLUYS, planning their career or improving their publishing skills. Department of Pediatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, on a Publishing Campus webinar. Divided into six colleges, the Campus offers online lectures, interactive training materials, videos and expert advice on a wide range of topics. For every online lecture or interactive course completed, researchers are awarded an Elsevier certificate.

The College of Skills Training - the biggest and most widely used of the colleges - covers the whole process. This college provides in-depth information and training on how to write, structure and submit a great article and improve authors’ chances of getting published. Key subjects such as ethics, author rights and open access options are included. Advice on successful grant writing can be looked up in the Research Funding section. The peer-review process, essential to improve the quality of articles, is also explained in detail – training not only includes how authors can work with reviewers’ comments, but courses on how to become a good peer reviewer. “I used the access for writing a postdoctoral For more information see publishingcampus.com. fellowship proposal, which successfully AUTHORS’ UPDATE came through after 10.2 the free-access period ended. Some Our interactive Authors’ Update website has all the information you of the Elsevier journals I could access need to help you get published and promote your articles. Regular posts during that time were very helpful for keep you in touch with industry developments and services designed finding relevant literature. The free access has contributed to the success to support your publishing efforts. You can also sign-up to receive free, of the proposal” regular email alerts. DR. CHRISTOPHER V. SYNATSCHKE, Feodor-Lynen Postdoctoral , Simpson For more information see elsevier.com/authors-update. Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology, Northwestern University, USA 10.3 POSTDOC FREE ACCESS PROGRAM Elsevier’s Postdoc Free Access Program supports young scholars

who are between jobs or looking Certificate of Completion for their first postdoctoral A. Researcher has successfully completed the following position. Qualified applicants Publishers: origins, roles, and contributions on Thursday 26 May, 2016 are granted up to 12 months’ free access to all our journals and books on ScienceDirect, greatly benefitting their work on grant applications and research projects.

For more information see elsevier.com/postdoc-free-access

UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS | HOW TO PUBLISH IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS 21 Training. Advice. Discussion. Networking.

Packed with free online lectures and interactive courses, together with expert advice and resources, to help you on your way to publishing a world-class book or journal article.

College of College of Skills Training Big Ideas Boost your publishing Discuss trending topics skills in journals and books in publishing and academia

College of College of Networking Research Solutions Make the most of every Training for effective and opportunity efficient research skills

College of College of Recommended Career Planning Organizations Get ahead in your Reach your potential academic career with support from global resources publishingcampus.com ES 3201 Heliyon Flyer.qxp_Heliyon A4 Flyer 11/04/2016 17:26 Page 2

You’re Invited to Publish Your Research in Heliyon Heliyon is an open access journal from Elsevier publishing quality research papers across all disciplines. Our team of experts provides:

Editorial Excellence Our dedicated in-house editorial team is committed to improving the researcher experience. Together with our editorial board of active researchers across all disciplines, we provide excellent editorial service to guide your paper to publication.

Fast Publication Publishing your research quickly is one of our top priorities. We are examining every step of the publication process and creating new workflows to publish your paper as quickly as possible.

High Visibility Your paper will be immediately available on both Heliyon.com and ScienceDirect upon publication, ensuring it reaches the widest possible relevant audience. Our focus on generating impact via press coverage and social media gives your paper the opportunity to be discovered.

LEARN MORE AT www.heliyon.com UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS How to publish in scholarly journals Author Services elsevier.com/author-services Authors’ Update elsevier.com/authors-update Elsevier Connect elsevier.com/connect Elsevier Webshop  webshop.elsevier.com Ethics in Research & Publication publishingcampus.com/ethics Journal Finder journalfinder.elsevier.com Mendeley Stats mendeley.com/stats Postdoc Free Access elsevier.com/postdoc-free-access Promote your work elsevier.com/promote-your-work Publishing Campus - online training publishingcampus.com Share Link elsevier.com/author-share-link [October 2017 - supersedes previous versions] elsevier.com/authors